Foundations of Truth
This is the podcast of Firm Foundations ministries. Our mission is to help you build your life on the unshakable foundation of God's Word, rooted in Scripture and anchored in the grace of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Each episode is designed to strengthen your faith, deepen your understanding, and encourage you to stand firm in a shifting world.
Foundations of Truth
So Great a Salvation
Have you ever become numb to something extraordinarily valuable? That's the danger the writer of Hebrews confronts with the soul-piercing question: "How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?"
Pastor Timothy Mann delves deep into Hebrews 2 to explore what makes our salvation "so great" and why treating it casually carries eternal consequences. This message wasn't originally planned—it came as a divine interruption when God pressed this scripture on Pastor Tim's heart just days before delivery.
The greatness of salvation stems from two profound realities. First, its divine source: unlike human-created religions, biblical salvation comes directly from God Himself through Jesus Christ. The gospel isn't mankind's speculation about God, but God's revelation to mankind. Jesus is both the messenger and the message, making Christianity utterly unique among belief systems.
Second, salvation's greatness is revealed in its immeasurable cost. Christ was "made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death." His humanity wasn't just for sympathy but for substitution. When Hebrews says Jesus "tasted death for everyone," it means He drank the full cup of God's wrath that we deserved. The cross wasn't an accident but the God-appointed means of redemption.
Pastor Tim courageously addresses theological tensions with crystal clarity: Christ's death is "sufficient for all, but effective only for those who believe." This preserves both the genuine nature of God's invitation and the necessity of personal faith. Neither universalism nor hyper-Calvinism aligns with the full biblical picture.
For long-time believers, the greatest danger isn't outright rejection of the gospel but becoming desensitized to its wonder. Neglecting salvation means treating the cross as ordinary when it should continually astonish us. Every lash on Jesus' back, every thorn in His brow was the price of our redemption.
Don't drift from these truths. Don't delay your response. Instead, run to Christ, rest in Christ, and rejoice in Christ—because nothing is more precious than knowing Him, and nothing more tragic than missing Him.
Welcome to Foundations of Truth, the Bible teaching ministry of Pastor Timothy Mann and Providence Church, ormond Beach, florida. Providence Church is a local assembly of followers of Jesus Christ dedicated to helping people become committed and mature followers of Jesus Christ. Now here's Pastor Timothy Mann teaching the Word.
Speaker 2:Saved, understanding God's work in us. We've been examining various aspects of this truth of salvation and what that means and how. That is true from God's Word, and we're continuing today. It's not the last of it, we've got a few more to go with that theme. Take your Bibles and turn with me to the book of Hebrews. Hebrews chapter 2, 9 verses, beginning in verse 1.
Speaker 2:Therefore, we must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest we drift away. For if the word spoken through angels proved steadfast and every transgression and disobedience received a just reward, how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord and was confirmed to us by those who heard Him, god also bearing witness with both signs and wonders, with various miracles and gifts of the Holy Spirit according to His own will, for he has not put the world to come, of which we speak, in subjection to angels. But one testified in a certain place saying and he quotes the Old Testament here what is man that you are mindful of him, or the son of man that you take care of him? You have made him a little lower than the angels. Verse 1. Nothing that is not put under him. But now we do not yet see all things put under him. But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor, that he, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone. We'll stop here. This is God's Word that we've read.
Speaker 2:Imagine if you would being invited to the most crucial event in history a coronation, a rescue mission, a homecoming, a victory celebration all in one. It's the event where eternity commences hanging in the balance. It is where heaven and earth collide. It is the fact when the king of kings takes center stage. But imagine being so distracted, preoccupied with small things, worldly things, so numb to the invitation, that you miss it entirely. That's the burden behind hebrews 2, verse 3. How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation, which at first began to be spoken by the lord and was confirmed to us by those who heard him? This is more than a rhetorical question. It's a soul-piercing warning, it's a holy wake-up call. The writer of Hebrews isn't whispering, he's shouting an alarm for those who are drifting, for those who are delaying, for those who are dismissing the gospel. And I want you to notice he doesn't just say salvation, he says so great a salvation. Why? Well, because there's nothing more important, nothing more important. Well, because there's nothing more important, nothing more important, nothing more glorious, nothing more eternally necessary.
Speaker 2:Over these past several weeks, we've explored the awe-inspiring scope of salvation. Through these messages. We've seen God's sovereign mercy in determining to save sinners. We've seen, we've observed, the finished work of Christ who took our place. We've witnessed from God's Word the power of the Holy Spirit that brings dead hearts to life. We've seen God adopting genuine believers into His forever family. We've traced salvation from the moment of our rescue to the very promise that our faith will endure by God's power and we will one day be glorified with Christ. We've seen all of that. Hadn't that been good? And every part of it, every moment, every movement is filled with grace. We've seen that salvation is not only an experience but also a miracle. We've seen that salvation is not only an experience but also a miracle. We've seen that it's not only a doctrine but it's a deliverance. We've seen that it's not only a belief system but it's a new birth from above. And yet, with all of that that we've considered, the question from hebrews still presses in. Have you truly understood the greatness of what God has done for you in Christ, or have you kind of just become desensitized, cold, indifferent? Because here's the sobering reality Neglecting this salvation doesn't necessarily mean hating it.
Speaker 2:It might not look like rebellion. It could simply look like a distraction, like drifting, like delay. Neglecting this salvation means treating the cross as ordinary. And I'm not talking about a symbol you wear around your neck or something that's on a steeple of a church or something you put on your wall. That's not the cross I'm talking about. I'm talking about the cross of Jesus.
Speaker 2:Neglecting this salvation means ignoring the gospel. It means kind of yawning about it. You know it's living as if Christ's death and resurrection have little impact on your daily life, and that's eternally dangerous. It's eternally dangerous. The word neglect suggests indifference, apathy or even just a failure to pay attention, like some of you will do eventually through this message. We have a hard time with that. It's like this is like falling asleep at the wheel spiritually, it's disaster is approaching and you don't even realize you're drifting. That's why we're pausing here in Hebrews today, not to move on from salvation. I had an entirely different message planned, studied out and ready to go, but Thursday morning I shared with Pastor Danny and Pastor Jesse and Pastor David. We got to put that one on hold. The Lord really pressed this scripture in on me.
Speaker 2:Thursday morning we're pausing here in Hebrews, not to move on from salvation but to realign our hearts with it. This message this morning isn't a final point. It's a call for clarity. I think we need to regain the big picture, the weight, the height and the depth and the wonder of what God has done for us in Christ. Don't drift, don't delay, don't minimize this great salvation. Instead, run to Christ, rest in Christ and rejoice in Christ, because nothing as we sang that second song this morning nothing is more precious than knowing him and nothing is more tragic than missing him. So let's talk about this. Y'all ready.
Speaker 2:Hebrews 2 that's where we're looking. We'll. We'll move around Hebrews a little bit, but mainly Hebrews 2. This great salvation, the first thing we have to touch base on this morning, is its source. Salvation is from God Himself. The greatness of salvation starts with its source Verse 3,. Put your eyes on it. How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation which, at the first, began to be spoken by the Lord and was confirmed to us by those who heard it.
Speaker 2:So this gospel, this message of salvation, doesn't come from man. It wasn't a product of religious tradition. We were visiting with Todd and Christy last night at dinner and boy, wasn't that fried chicken, good, brother? Yeah, yeah, it wasn't a. We were talking about being in Rome and he told us. He said, brother, in Rome, catholicism is on a whole new level there and he shared with us just completely how 100 pagan it is. Just so you know, roman catholicism is a false gospel. It is not the gospel of the bible. Now you can get your feelings heard on that if you want to. Could there be some catholics who will go to heaven? Yes, if ultimately they're only trusting in jesus and jesus alone, yes, but roman catholicism, catholicism rob, say amen. It a false gospel. You know how he knows. He was one. Praise God, the Lord saved him.
Speaker 2:The gospel isn't a product of religious tradition, it's not a product of philosophical thinking, it's not a product of mystical experience. It comes directly from Jesus Christ himself. And that truly makes all the difference, because the message of salvation is not man's speculation about God, but it's God's revelation to man. He is the way. That's what he himself said. He didn't just show the way to salvation, he is the way. That's what Jesus himself said, as recorded in the gospel of John, chapter 14, verse 6. And so the one who would die to redeem us is the very one who first announced the good news the gospel of Mark, chapter 1, verse 15.
Speaker 2:From the very start of his public ministry, the Bible says that Jesus preached the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe the gospel. He didn't offer theories, he didn't offer self-help. He spoke with divine authority as the eternal son of God. And so the gospel isn't second-hand information, it's the voice of the shepherd calling his sheep by name, calling them to life and to follow him. And this is what makes Christianity unique compared to all other religious systems, because in a world filled with human effort and spiritual striving, the biblical gospel announces something completely different, and that is that God has acted, god has spoken and god has come. That's what it says. It wasn't our idea to seek him, it was his idea to seek and to save us.
Speaker 2:We talked about this in another message from titus, chapter 3, verses 4 through 5. That says but when the kindness and the love of God, our Savior, toward man appeared not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us. So this salvation is God's initiative from start to finish. God the Father planned it, god the Son proclaimed it and achieved it, and God the Spirit applies it and secures it. And, according to the Bible, even before the creation of the world, god had this in mind and that's why the gospel is unshakable. That's why the gospel is unstoppable. It doesn't depend on man's invention, it doesn't depend on man's emotion. It's rooted in divine purpose.
Speaker 2:That's why Hebrews, chapter 1, turn hebrews one. Put your eyes on verses one and two. That's why hebrews, chapter one, verse one and two really begins with this foundation. So turn, turn and look at it with me. It says this god, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by his what? Son? By his son. So check this out Jesus is both the messenger and the message. He's both. So to hear him speak is to hear God speak, and to neglect the gospel is to ignore God himself. That's why this warning is so urgent, is to ignore God himself. That's why this warning is so urgent?
Speaker 2:Because if people invented this salvation, well, it could be flawed. If people invented this salvation, it could be limited or it could be subject to change. But because it comes from the Lord himself, it is pure, it is perfect and it is eternally binding. And so to reject this gospel is not just foolish, it's rebellion. It's rebellion. To ignore it is to insult the god who graciously gave it. That's why hebrews asks how shall we, how shall we escape? How shall we escape? Because God has revealed the gospel through his son.
Speaker 2:Are you listening? Have you responded to it with joy and surrendered faith, or are you drifting in distraction, in delay? Drifting in distraction, in delay, because if salvation really comes from God himself, what would it look like for you to treat it accordingly, that this salvation actually came from God himself? What would it look like for you to treat it accordingly Not just once, but every day, every day? What would it look like for you to treat it accordingly not just once, but every day, every day? What would it look like in your life? So we see its source, but that's not all. We also, we just can't help but see the cost. So if the source of our salvation is divine origin from god, then the cost really shows its infinite value.
Speaker 2:Hebrews 2, verse 9. We're going to go down to that. I'm not going to expound every verse in the passage I read this morning verse 9 verse 9 expands here on the weight behind the salvation described in verse 3. Look at the verse, verse 9. But we see jesus who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor that he, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone. So it says who was made a little lower than the angels. Let me touch on that.
Speaker 2:This refers to Jesus' incarnation, when the eternal Son of God took on human flesh. The phrase a little lower, made a little lower, that means temporarily lower in rank and status. Jesus humbled Himself by becoming human and stepping into our world. The king and the creator of the universe condescended to us. The salvation did not come cheaply. It did not come cheaply. It was not achieved through religious efforts or moral effort at all. It was bought with the blood of Jesus Christ and we need to remember that.
Speaker 2:Too often I think, especially for those who have walked with Christ for many years, it becomes easy to just kind of grow numb to the incredible truth of the cross. We become accustomed to it, we get used to it, we just kind of take it for granted. But I would hope this morning, my prayer today is that you will let it settle fresh on your heart that the eternal Son of God suffered and died in your place. It says for the suffering of death, for the suffering of death. That states the very purpose for his incarnation. Suffering of death, that states the very purpose for his incarnation.
Speaker 2:Jesus became lower than the angels in order to suffer death. So his mission, actually that he came for, required the full identification with us, even to the point of death. And so his humanity wasn't just for sympathy, it was for substitution. Jesus didn't just suffer, he suffered to the point of death. And he didn't just die, he died for sinners. He didn't just die for your benefit, he just didn't die for your good. He didn't simply set an example, he became the substitute, he became the substitute, he became the substitute.
Speaker 2:And when, when hebrews here says that he tasted death for everyone, that he tasted death for everyone, that doesn't mean he just sampled it, it means he drank the full cup, he drank it all. He bore the full bitterness of the grave and he endured the wrath of God that we deserve for our sin. So here's the heart of the gospel Jesus died in our place. That's the heart of the gospel. Jesus died in our place. That's the heart of the gospel. Taste death. That doesn't mean a brief or just a symbolic experience. It means a whole experience of death, of separation, but with the implication here that he conquered it, because it says he's crowned with glory and honor the resurrection. He tasted death for everyone. That phrase for everyone Highlights the universal scope of his saving work.
Speaker 2:His death is sufficient for all, but only effective for those who believe. His death is sufficient for all, but only effective for those who believe. His death is sufficient for all, but only effective for those who believe. Now, let me just take a moment and speak to that. What does that mean? His death is sufficient for all, but only effective for those who believe. Well, first of all it means, when I say that his death is sufficient for all, it means that the value and worth of Christ's death is infinite and unlimited.
Speaker 2:His sacrifice is sufficient to pay for the sins of every person who has ever lived or ever will live Christ's perfect life and His substitutionary death could save all people if they would repent and believe the Bible, says John the Baptist. When he sees his distant cousin walking on the banks of the Jordan River, john the Baptist says behold, that's fancy talk. For look y'all, look at him, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. John said in 1 John 2, 2, he himself, meaning Jesus, is the propitiation for our sins. Propitiation is a fancy word for atoning sacrifice. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the whole world, probably the most famous verse in all the Bible John 3, 16,. For God so loved the world.
Speaker 2:And so when I say his death is sufficient for all, that reflects the gracious and broad offer of the gospel that anyone who hears the good news is truly invited to come to Christ, truly invited to come to Christ. There's no limit in the offer or the sufficiency of His death. And if you believe otherwise, you don't believe the Bible. So I disagree with that. Pastor Tim, that's all right. You can reserve the right to be wrong. That's okay, that's all right, and that is. That is, in my humble yet most accurate opinion, all right. So yeah, and also this means when I say there is death is sufficient for all, but it's effective only for those who believe. That part also means that the saving benefits of Christ's death listen to me very carefully the saving benefits of Christ's death, which is forgiveness and justification and eternal life, and all those things we preached about for these last several weeks, the saving benefits of Christ's death are only applied to those who repent and trust in him. Only applied to those who repent and trust in him. And so, though the cross is sufficient to save everyone, it is efficient, or we could say effectual, only for genuine believers. So without repentance hear me closely without repentance and faith, a person remains under condemnation, despite Christ's work being sufficient.
Speaker 2:The Bible says John 3, 36,. Jesus said this he who believes in the Son has everlasting life, and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life. Ephesians 2, verse 8,. By grace you have been saved through faith. Verse 8,. By grace you have been saved through faith. Acts 16, 31,. We preached on this in the second sermon on this series. Believe on the Lord, jesus Christ, and you will be saved.
Speaker 2:Now let me just go a little further and just go ahead and make some of you even more upset with me. I'll be ready for your emails tomorrow. I promise you that I will. I'll be ready. Let me just go a little further and tell you why this matters. This this death is sufficient for all, but effective for only those who believe.
Speaker 2:Let me tell you why this matters, because that distinction helps protect two biblical truths. The first biblical truth is this God's gracious invitation is real. It's a bona fide offer. There's no phoniness in it. There's no fakeness in it, there's no bait and switch. His invitation is real and it's wide. Anyone can be saved. Secondly, here's the other biblical truth Salvation is only experienced through faith, is only experienced through faith. No one is automatically saved. Without a personal response to Christ, nobody. And also this reality His death is sufficient for all, but effective only for those who believe.
Speaker 2:It also guards against two extremes, and one is this Universalism. It guards against universalism. Yes, sir, I've never heard of that in my life. I want to tell you what it is. It's the false teaching that everybody is saved and goes to heaven, regardless of belief in Jesus. That's a lie. And it also guards against another extreme, and that's hyper-Calvinism, the false teaching that the gospel shouldn't be offered to all people because Christ didn't die for all.
Speaker 2:You might ask me this morning, pastor Tim, you a calvinist? No, you might ask me, pastor tim, are you an armenian? No, I'm a biblicist. I want to stand where the bible stands no more, no less. And if I can't figure it all out, it doesn't matter to me. I don't have to cross your t or dot your I. I'm going to stand where the bible stands no more, no less. You can lock it or you can lump it. You can get on the board with jesus.
Speaker 2:Listen, that's not going to be our fight here. It's not going to be our fight here. I'm going to say it one more time it's not going to be our fight here. If I've been about as clear as I can be, we're going to stand on the gospel of Jesus Christ. God's business is his business. Our business is to make disciples and take the gospel and I believe with full, clear conscience.
Speaker 2:I can look anybody in the eye and say you need to come to Jesus, repent and believe, because Christ died for you. I don't have to hedge my bets. I don't have to for you. I don't have to hedge my bets. I don't have to stutter, I don't have to blush. Jesus died for you. Yeah, hope that clears the air for some of you. Yeah, oh, we need to see and understand the cost of salvation this morning.
Speaker 2:The Apostle Paul said it well in Romans, chapter 5, verse 8. God demonstrates His love, his own love, toward us in that while we were still sinners, christ died for us. So the cross was no accident of history. It was the God-appointed means of redemption. Jesus was not a victim, he was a willing sacrifice. He came to die. He came to die. He himself said it.
Speaker 2:Luke 19, 10,. The Son of man has come to seek and to save that which was lost. 1 Peter, 2, verse 24,. The apostle said this who himself, meaning Jesus, bore our sins in his own body on the tree that we, having died two sins, might live for righteousness, by whose stripes you are healed. This is why salvation isn't just a religious idea. It's a blood-bought fact. It was paid for at the highest price possible by the grace of God might taste death for everyone. 1 Corinthians 6.20,.
Speaker 2:For you were bought at a price. You were bought at a price. If you're a Christian in here this morning, you don't belong to you. The reality is you don't have any rights. You don't belong to you. You were bought at a price. Therefore, glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's. And so this price, this blood, this death, really should influence how we see things and it should influence how we live. We are not saved because we turn over a new leaf. You can turn over a new leaf. It'll be dirty too. We're not saved because we make a fresh commitment. We're not saved because we finally took god serious. No, we can be saved, and we are saved because Jesus took our place on the cross. I want you to hear me well. Every lash on his back, every thorn that pressed into his brow, every drop of blood was the price of our salvation. And since that is true, how dare we treat this gift lightly? Because neglecting salvation isn't just ignoring a gift, it's trampling the cross, it's taking mercy for granted.
Speaker 1:You've been listening to Foundations of Truth, the Bible teaching ministry of Pastor Timothy Mann at Providence Church, ormond Beach, florida. Thanks for tuning in to Foundations of Truth. Keep building your life on God's eternal truth and we'll see you next time.
